Grimm: Putting the pieces back together

Saturday

Mar 1, 2014 at 3:00 PM

EDITOR'S NOTE: The home of Chris Grimm, Journal Star assistant news editor, was damaged during the November tornado in Washington. He is sharing his story with periodic updates about his family's experience.

Chris Grimm of the Journal Star

EDITOR’S NOTE: The home of Chris Grimm, Journal Star assistant news editor, was damaged during the November tornado in Washington. He is sharing his story with periodic updates about his family’s experience.

WASHINGTON — There was a point in the process when desperation took over.

“Look, I understand this is a job for you,” I told our insurance adjustor, “but this is my life we are trying to put back together. ”

There wasn’t anger attached to the plea. I was begging. I was frustrated. It had been more than seven weeks since the Nov. 17 tornado carved through parts of Pekin, East Peoria and Washington. My home, though standing, was among the more than 1,000 damaged in Washington.

We were lucky. We knew that minutes after the tornado hit, and we know that now. My home is located just four houses from complete devastation. Included in that devastation are two homes owned by my in-laws. In the weeks and months since the tornado, I’ve watched my family, friends and neighbors go down different paths toward putting their lives back together.

Insurance adjustors are a big part of those paths.

When I met our first adjustor a few days after the tornado, the word he used most often was process. He said it numerous times. That word made sense to me. I even took comfort in it. Process to me meant moving forward.

Putting my home back together was going to be a process. Putting the homes of my in-laws back together was going to be a process. Putting my neighborhood back together was going to be a process. Putting Washington back together was going to be a process.

Since a few days after the tornado, my wife, son and I have been living in a two-bedroom apartment in Morton — an apartment we have through April. My son is still attending school in Washington and is driven to school each day.

While I realize we are fortunate to have our house, this is just an example of what one family is going through. I’m sure other central families have their own stories — some better, some worse.

The process has been slow going. It took more than five weeks to get an estimate from the adjustor. The adjustor’s financial estimate was half of what the contractor was estimating.

Here it was Jan. 2, more than seven weeks since the tornado, and the deep cold we were experiencing made it feel like my home was frozen in time. The outside was beaten and broken. A blue spray-painted “OK” was still prominently displayed on the nailed up garage door. The front windows were covered with plywood. The roof had a sprawling blue tarp across it which kept blowing off. Inside, glass spread across the floors. Cracks and water damage could be seen on the walls and ceilings. It was the same house we left the night of the tornado. Nothing had changed.

What made it worse was the progress going on around us. Neighbors had crews fixing roofs and putting up siding. Windows were being replaced. Work was being done. There were even promising signs of rebuilding from houses that had been leveled.

Somehow, the process had stalled at my home.

With such a wide gap between my adjustor’s estimate and what the contractor, Scott Coppejans of El Paso, was saying, the four of us had a meeting to bridge the gap. My wife and I didn’t feel comfortable moving forward with the repairs until the two sides were closer in agreement.

On Jan. 2 we had that meeting. The contractor came down. The adjustor would not budge. That’s when desperation took over, and I made my plea.

It didn’t work.

The next day I called the insurance company and asked for a new adjustor.

For us, this was part of the process.

On Jan. 9, we met the new adjustor at the house.

His name is Dwayne Funches. When I saw him, I knew who he was. He’s only a little taller than I am, but he’s a mountain of a man. Up until him walking through my front door, the image of Dwayne Funches that stuck in my mind was that of an undersized forward/center battling under the basket for the Bradley Braves from 1992 to 1996.

What I remember of Funches on the basketball court is a player that continually hustled, had a nose for the ball, played hard and maximized the talent he was given.

Funches is that kind of adjustor. We spent more than five hours going through the house with the contractor. Funches had a new estimate that night. The next day he had a check in the mail.

If you were to drive down my street today, you would see real progress. New construction is beginning. Many homes that were left standing appear to have their repairs fixed.

When you get to my home, it looks much the same as it did after the tornado, but we know that there’s progress on the inside.

It’s easy to think you are alone in the process. It’s easy to think that everyone is going at a much faster pace. I’ve had to tell myself several times, “It’s not a race.”

My conversations with neighbors, friends and family tell a different story, however.

Whether rebuilding from scratch or repairing what was left, I haven’t heard a story yet where the process was smooth.

Chris Grimm is assistant news editor for the Journal Star. He can be reached at cgrimm@pjstar.com.